Ophthalmology Business

DEC 2017

Ophthalmology Business is focused on business topics relevant to the entrepreneurial ophthalmologist. It offers editorial, opinion, and practical tips for physicians running an ophthalmic practice. It is a companion publication of EyeWorld.

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TM
From the publisher
A
ll physicians aspire to provide compassionate care of the
highest quality, and one aspect of that is delivering bad
news to a patient, whether that be a vision-threatening
disease or a physician's error. In this issue of Ophthal-
mology Business, we explore this topic in "Breaking bad
news to patients." The article contains helpful tips for discussing negative
outcomes, such as recalling from previous interactions how the patient
might prefer to receive such news and focusing on positive attributes of
the situation.
It's a scenario that is becoming more and more common: In late 2016,
Horizon Eye Care was attacked by ransomware, malicious software that
blocks access to files until a ransom is paid. "As an administrator—and I
know this is true for the doctors, too—you always think that this is not
going to happen to us, we're doing all the right things. It was a big wake-
up call for us," said Suzanne Bruno, administrator at Horizon Eye Care.
Read "Cyber security: Protecting patient data" to learn how the practice
handled the attack and how you can protect your practice from one.
Also in this issue, we discuss the advancement of artificial intelligence
in ophthalmology and what it means for clinicians. There is research in
this area that focuses on retinopathy of prematurity (ROP), one of the
most common causes of childhood blindness in the world. "We have de-
veloped computer systems to analyze images and make a diagnosis of ROP,
and we've shown that these computer systems perform comparably and
often better than most experts for diagnosing this disease. The computer
systems are objective and reproducible," said Michael Chiang, MD. In "Ro-
bot doctors?" Dr. Chiang and Michael Abramoff, MD, share their research
as well as important factors in the implementation of these systems.
There is a rising trend in the "incidental medical traveler," one who
is going to travel anyway and seeks light medical care, according to Josef
Woodman, founder of Patients Beyond Borders, a publisher and purveyor
of information about medical tourism. This medical care is usually min-
imally invasive with predicable outcomes and short recovery periods. In
"Medical tourism in ophthalmology," we explore the reasons why Amer-
ican patients might engage in medical tourism, as well as why patients
are coming to the U.S. for medical care. The article also contains helpful
information for counseling patients on medical tourism, such as encour-
aging patients to research the doctors' and clinic's credentials.
As 2017 comes to a close, we would like to express our gratitude to
the readers of Ophthalmology Business. We look forward to bringing you
more helpful articles in 2018, so please contact us if there is a topic you
would like to learn more about.
Happy holidays!
Donald Long, Publisher
digital.OphthalmologyBusiness.org Vol. 8, No. 4
December 2017 • Ophthalmology Business 3
December 2017
Donald Long
Publisher
don@eyeworld.org
Stacy Jablonski
Editor
stacy@eyeworld.org
Julio Guerrero
Graphic design
julio@eyeworld.org
Susan Steury
Graphic design assistant
susan@eyeworld.org
Carly Peterson
Production assistant
carly@eyeworld.org
Paul Zelin
Sales
paul@eyeworld.org
Monica Frishman
Sales
monica@eyeworld.org
ASCRS Publisher: Ophthalmology Business is published
quarterly by ASCRS Ophthalmic Services Corp.,
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4055; telephone 703-591-2220; fax 703-273-2963.
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email: stacy@eyeworld.org
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